1. Field of the Art
The present invention relates to a sprayer, and more particularly to a hose-end sprayer that can dispense ready-to-use liquid products, such as fertilizer compositions or pesticide (e.g., herbicides, fungicides, and insecticides) compositions.
2. Description of Related Art
There are many known spray devices for dispensing chemicals or other products to maintain lawns, gardens, yards, trees, shrubs, or plants. Most spray devices provide ready-to-use (“RTU”) liquids, such as fertilizers, herbicides, insecticides, and fungicides, which can be dispensed directly from the spray device in a variety of spray patterns.
Most conventional hose-end sprayers have a grip area “in-line” with a sprayer nozzle and a connector for connecting the sprayer to a garden hose and a sprayer nozzle (i.e., a central axis of the grip area is substantially parallel to, and substantially in the same plane as that shared by the central axis of the sprayer nozzle and the central axis of the garden hose connector). This configuration often results in several problems. For example, in order to hold the sprayer in a steady position, especially when directing the spray at close target areas, users may need to exert greater than ordinary gripping force to counteract the kick-back force of the spray exiting the sprayer nozzle. Furthermore, sprayers having a grip area in-line with an attachment means to a garden hose are susceptible to poor connections between the garden hose connector and the garden hose. Such poor connections may result following wear and tear to the garden hose (e.g., damage to a threaded connection at the end of the garden hose inflicted by a user dropping the garden hose onto a driveway, driving over the garden hose, etc.), which, in turn, may result in water leaking from the poor connection. Because of the physical configuration of these conventional sprayers, which have the grip area in-line with a connector for connecting the sprayer to a garden hose, when water leaks from the sprayer at the poor connection, it does so oftentimes onto the hand of the user. Water leaking onto the hand of a user may be inconvenient or unpleasant for the user. Moreover, a user may mistakenly perceive the leaking water to contain a chemical product, causing the user to have unnecessary concerns about health or safety.
Other drawbacks also exist with conventional sprayers. For instance, sprayers with rotatable valves (e.g., valves located on the side or the top of a sprayer housing) require two hands for operation. One hand is required to hold the sprayer, while the other hand controls the rotatable valve located on the side of the sprayer. Additionally, many sprayers currently found on the market today couple a chemical container to a sprayer housing with a threaded connection. Assembling products having this type of connection demands added steps in the manufacturing process, which leads to added manufacturing costs. These and other problems are known to exist with conventional sprayers.
Notwithstanding the number of spray devices that currently exist, most fail to provide a reliable, user-friendly device that is cost-effective to manufacture, easy to use, and safe for a user to operate. The present invention, as demonstrated by the several exemplary embodiments described herein, provides a ready-to-use hose-end sprayer with beneficial features that achieve improved functionality over conventional sprayers. The sprayer of the present invention combines numerous advantages including: (1) a housing forming a grip area that is not “in-line” with the sprayer nozzle and the garden hose connector, thus positioning the grip area within a horizontal plane below a separate horizontal plane containing the sprayer nozzle but above a further separate horizontal plane containing the garden hose connector, and reducing the chance that a user will be exposed to water or other liquid leaking from the housing (e.g., at the connection between the garden hose connector and the garden hose); (2) a pivot switch, operable for example by a user's thumb, located on the exterior portion of the sprayer's housing that enables a user to both hold the sprayer and control the flow of liquid through the sprayer, all with one hand; (3) an internal connection between the device's conduits that creates a vacuum to enable precise dilution/mixing of a substance liquid with a carrier liquid; and (4) a snap-fit connection between the housing and the container to improve cost-effectiveness of the manufacturing process and to more securely couple the housing to the container.
The description herein of certain advantages and disadvantages of known methods and devices is not intended to limit the scope of the present invention. Indeed, the exemplary embodiments may include some or all of the features described above without suffering from the same disadvantages.